We eat our meals family style, passing bowls and plates of food around the table to make sure everyone gets enough. We have several Jewish campers who keep different levels of kosher and Muslim campers who observe halaal. These restrictions mostly apply to meat, so our solution is to offer an almost entirely vegetarian meal selection.

But on the fourth of July, Independence day for U.S. participants, our beloved chef Bobby and his team treated us to an outdoor barbecue, replete with hamburgers, baked beans and watermelon. Although there are a number of vegetarians at camp, myself included, most of the participants were feeling the lack of meat. And although hummus, beans and other protein rich foods abound at every meal, you’d have thought some of the campers were about to fall over from iron deficiency after seeing the way they approached their burgers. Rael, a South African participant, ate his kosher beef patties without buns because “they take up too much room.”

We sat around tables populated with people from all over the world eating our fill, and someone jingled a tambourine in the background. Our conversation ranged from how to resolve global social injustices to the nuances of “that’s what she said jokes.” And if you didn’t think it was possible to eat four cheese burgers in one sitting, you should meet some of our Northern Irish guys.